London-based start-up Primo has raised $750,000 (£468,000) in seed funding from Ibis Capital, a pool of angel investors and two incubators: MTS, based in San Francisco and Emerge Education, based in London.

Primo launched in November 2013 after a successful Kickstarter campaign. It is a toy that teaches children aged 3-7 computer programming without the need for literacy. It covers concepts like algorithms and prepares children for more advanced coding later in life.

Co-founder Filippo Yacob said: “It’s all about offering children active and healthy consumption of technology, as opposed to passive entertainment. We will apply our philosophy to products that cover all science, technology, engineering and maths subjects going forward, not just programming”.

Through its subsidiary Edxus Group, Ibis Capital plans to spend up to €60 million (£51 million) on education acquisitions in a bid to build a leading education business for the European market.

Ibis partner Benjamin Vedrenne-Cloquet said: “Primo is one of the most innovative and unconventional early-stage companies we have seen in the ed tech ecosystem. Our investment in Primo signals our ongoing commitment to support the development of European ed tech.”

24/05/2018Education technology company 2U has appointed Mark Chernis as its chief operating officer. Lanham, Maryland-based 2U was founded in 2008 and Chernis has been a board and audit committee member of the company since 2009.He joins 2U from global education company Pearson.

23/05/2018Chinese education company JiaYi Education has acquired Bambinos, which has four nurseries in the Plymouth area of Devon. The nurseries serve 400 families with children aged from birth to five, or up to 11 during holidays and after school.

23/05/2018Buffalo, New York-based Campus Labs, a subsidiary of Edcentric and a portfolio company of Leeds Equity Partners, has acquired Chalk & Wire Learning Assessment, which provides learning assessment and credentialing software used by higher education institutions to assess and measure student learning.

23/05/2018Four Seasons Education, the Shanghai-based after-school maths education service provider for elementary school students has announced unaudited Q4 gross profit of CNY37.7 million (£4.4 million), up 38.6% from CNY27.2 million in the fourth quarter last year.

17/05/2018Beijing-based China Distance Education Holdings, a provider of online education and value-added services for professionals and corporate clients in China, has announced a loss for the second quarter of fiscal year 2018 ending 31 March.

17/05/2018Fulton, Maryland-based New Markets Venture Partners today announced the final close of NMEP II, a $68 million (£50.4 million) venture capital fund focused on education technology and innovation.

Thomas Choo, a partner at Clyde & Co's Singapore office, points to an easing of the regulatory framework for foreign private education investment in Southeast Asia, as countries note the growing number of nationals seeking an overseas education